Broad Bean Spread

The broad beans are the last of the spring veggies in the garden. I didn't get many beans this year as I'm practicing hard love on the garden and haven't been watering much. This is a blessing in disguise as much as I love them, it is possible to have too much. I remember the first year I grew a huge bed of them, ending up with many buckets full. After much blanching and freezing there were more in the fridge than I could ever want.

I usually cook too many when I prepare them as a side dish, so Hannah and I ended up preparing this as a spread for crackers or bread.

1 cup cooked broad beans (shelled beans are boiled for about 5 minutes then thrown into cold water which causes the skins to spilt and makes removal easy)
1 or 2 lemons (to taste)
a good glug of oil
a good pinch of salt
some crushed garlic if desired

Puree the broad beans. We use a mortar and pestle as nothing seems to please a three year old as much as pounding something to a pulp with a lot of noise (no crushed fingers so far!).

Then add lemon juice, oil, salt and garlic to taste and mix well.